Directive planning is the process of developing plans brought by higher authorities to structural units

Planning can be seen as a special form of social activity or a specific management function. It acts as an effective tool for implementing state programs. The social sphere and the economy are the main objects of this activity on the national scale. Directive planning is one of the forms of program implementation used in the Soviet era. Let's consider it in more detail.

General information

The socialist economy has a number of specific features. It is provided by a special form of management of the national economic complex. As it is centralized planning. Despite the fact that the Soviet regime has remained in the past, now this form of management is often used along with market mechanisms. First of all, this is due to the fact that when developing new conditions for the functioning of the national economic complex, it is necessary to forecast the prospects for development.

Objectives

Planning is a decision-making process, based on the compilation of the input data. It involves the definition and scientific justification of the goals, ways and means to achieve them by means of a comparative evaluation of the various options and the choice of the optimal among them in the context of the expected development. State planning links all production factors, ensures the balance of value and natural-material flows. It promotes the effective and rational use of available resources for the implementation of tasks. The essence of the activity is not to develop and bring numerous results to the immediate performers, but to set goals for the anticipated development and develop means for their real achievement. Depending on the form of manifestation, strategic, indicative and directive planning are distinguished. In modern conditions, the most common are the first and second.

Directive Planning System

It involves the development of programs that have the power of legal law, as well as the means and mechanisms for their implementation. The created schemes are mandatory for execution. At the same time, officials responsible for the entire process are identified. Many people of the older generation know perfectly well what the state plan is. The USSR and Eastern European countries often used the scheme in question in the management of the national economic complex. With the help of the developed programs, the government directly influenced all its spheres and links. The State Planning Committee of the USSR was of an address character and was characterized by exceptional detail. Meanwhile in practice he often enough and remained on paper, than completely discredited himself.

Specificity

Directive planning is a form of management that presupposes strict observance of discipline, responsibility of enterprises, officials, economic bodies for failure to fulfill assigned tasks. It is accompanied by strict control of output and allocation of resources. Each supplier is attached to its customer, and the consumer, in turn, knows from whom he will receive the components, semi-finished products, raw materials. The Ministry of Economy decides how much, how, when, at what cost, and to whom to sell. The initiative of economic entities is completely excluded.

Implementation

Directive planning is a form of management in which target tasks are set up and the resources necessary for their implementation are distributed. With a monopoly of state ownership, centralized planning covers all spheres of society's life. The main levers are:

1. CAPEX limits.
2. Budgetary financing.
3. State orders.
4. Funds of material and technical resources.

In the process of developing schemes, performers do not play a major role. Developers of programs carry out centralized supply, assume the responsibility for material and technical support of achievement of indicators. At the same time, often the completion of the developed programs is not supported by the allocation of the necessary resources. In such cases, the plan becomes a burden.

Structural elements

With all the diversity of forms of ownership, the Ministry of Economy often uses the components of the former governance schemes in the public sector and budget financing. These elements, in particular, are included in the programs:

1. Deliveries of products for the federal state needs.
2. Development of the public sector of the economy.
3. Adopted for funding from the federal budget.

Directive planning is a method of management that completely excludes the impact of the market on the economic system. Developed programs endure almost all microeconomic indicators at the macro level. At the same time, enterprises do not have autonomy. When making decisions, the assessment of microeconomic points is excluded. The place of the market takes the plan, prices - volume, loans - financing, commodity exchange - disaggregation and aggregation, supply and demand - balance. Directive planning is an exclusively administrative procedure. Its course is not connected with the use of cost mechanisms.

Management experience

The transition from central planning to other forms of it implies, first of all, the elimination of contradictions of interests between executors and program developers. To successfully achieve common goals, schemes should not be given in the form of assignments. Their development should be entrusted to immediate performers. Meanwhile, the rather unsuccessful experience of previous years should not prevent the use of directive production planning in solving national problems. It should be understood that this scheme, acting as an alternative to market self-adjustment, will not be its antipode. It is an important tool that is used not only by the state as a whole, but also by the business sector in particular.

Value

Directive planning is applied in those situations when it is necessary to solve global problems. This form of management of the national economic complex is very effective in the industrialization of the country, the formation of the defense potential, the structural transformation of industrial enterprises, etc. However, it is expedient to apply central planning in weighed, critical situations. For example, in the conditions of a natural disaster, war, depression, crisis. The scope and timing of the policy should be limited.

Alternative solution

Indicative planning is the most widely used in the world. It acts as a means of realizing the government's social and economic policy, the main method of influencing the functioning of the market regime. Indicative planning contributes to the effective resolution of many problems in cases. It is used when only market mechanisms without state intervention are extremely inadequate.

Schematic features

Recommended (indicative) planning is the process of forming a set of indicators through which the development and general state of the national economic sector is characterized. These parameters correspond to the state policy and presuppose certain measures of government influence on the processes. Indicators of development are indicators reflecting the efficiency, structure and dynamics of the economic sphere, the state and nature of circulation of finance, the securities market and goods, the quality of life of citizens, the level of interaction with foreign trading partners, etc. An internally balanced set of these parameters allows for a quantitative assessment of state activity In the socio-economic sphere, for the implementation of which state regulation measures are oriented.

Process Content

The essence of indicative planning is to justify the objectives, objectives, methods and policies of the state. It acts as an effective form of interaction between all federal institutions of governance both with each other and with regional representations in the interests of developing the economic sector and its individual components. The role of indicative planning is to directly indicate the areas in which the state needs to intervene in strictly defined cases. The government does not directly affect enterprises, but large companies are interested in cooperation with the government, because they need support in attracting foreign investments, promoting their products to world markets, etc. Indicative plans do not hamper the initiative of business. Together with this they allow us to outline a common management course for firms, inform enterprises about potential demand, the situation in related industries, the state of affairs in the labor market, and so on. Without planning, it is impossible to justify investment. The developed programs have an impact on public spending. Planning allows organically combining socio-economic concepts, forecasts of the state of the economic sphere, a set of regulators, the volume of federal capital investments, supplies for state needs, management of state enterprises.

Efficiency

Indicative planning is based on priorities, under which stimulating mechanisms are formed. At the stage of transition to market relations, it acts as an objective and logical continuation and development of the forecast process. This is due to the fact that the latter includes quite a few components. Except, in fact, the forecast itself, the process of analysis includes state programs, a set of regulators, supplies for state needs, the volume of federal capital investments, etc. That is, the analysis procedure goes beyond the usual foresight of situations. The effectiveness of indicative plans is proved by international practice. In particular, the schemes in Japan and France became effective. Relying on the government sector, they give an acceleration to the pace of development of the national economy.

Long-term prospects

Directive and indicative planning is ideally used for a relatively short time. Strategic programs were sent to the long-term perspective. This type of planning involves the establishment of specific goals, the formation and allocation of funds that are necessary to achieve them. In this case, the main task is to establish the correct relationship between the elements. The strategic goals relate to meeting the needs of people. The formation of needs is influenced by both external and internal factors. With limited resources, which is typical for any country, the choice of key objectives is accompanied by a prioritization.

Specificity of strategic programs

As distinctive features of the given form of planning it is necessary to allocate:

1. Formation of goals that have a decisive significance for the national economic complex.
2. Resource support for the implementation of tasks.
3. Accounting for the impact of internal and external conditions.

The goal of the strategic programs is to create sufficient potential for the forthcoming successful development of the national economic complex. The implementation of the programs is carried out for different periods of time. Depending on the period of action, long-term (calculated for 10 years and more), medium-term (5 years) and current (annual) schemes are allocated. In practice, all these types of plans are applied. This ensures the continuity of programs and the achievement of time-honored goals.

Features of programming

In the process of transition to market relations, the planning process undergoes various changes. Its variety is programming, whose tasks include providing solutions to key issues related to environmental, social, scientific, technical, sectoral, regional and other problems. This process is necessary for the formation of an integrated approach and purposeful allocation of resources. Programs can be created at any level of the hierarchy. Along with this, the developed project always acts as an address document of indicative or directive nature.

Classification

Depending on the direction of action, content and object of the program may be scientific and technical, socio-economic, territorial, organizational and economic, targeted, emergency, etc. Regional and national projects are comprehensive. They affect general economic issues and reflect the preferable option for the development of the social and economic sphere of the state as a whole or its region in particular. Emergency programs, as a rule, are drawn up for a short time. They are used in the state in critical situations: mass unemployment, crisis, dangerous inflation, etc. When implemented, administrative instruments are used quite actively.